Hyderabad: Stating that organising Panchanga Sravanam at Raj Bhavan a day before Ugadi was against tradition, senior Congress MP V. Hanumantha Rao on Saturday wondered how could Governor E.S.L. Narasimhan go against known practises.
Speaking to the media at the Gandhi Bhavan, he said that ever since Mr Narasimhan took over as the Governor, instead of keeping his devotion to himself, he has made it a point to publicly display it, to the extent of even removing his shirt and applying sandalwood paste on entire body.
Mr Rao said that these practises should be avoided. “President Pranab Mukherjee also visits temples but he has never been seen publicly practising rituals as is done by the Governor,” the senior MP said.
He also took objection to Mr Narasimhan visiting various temples repeatedly, thereby causing inconvenience to the devotees. “For every visit of the Governor, the police stops all other devotees for hours together and also blocks the traffic for him. This is not good,” the MP said.
Decrying the contradictory predictions by astrologers on Ugadi, the Telugu New Year, Mr Rao said that was most unfortunate that the people of the state were left confused over whether there will be bountiful rains this year or not.
The senior MP read out five predictions recited by astrologers at separate events organised by different political parties, and pointed out that each of these five readings of the almanac give different predictions.
He said while one priest at the BJP office predicted that Prime Minister Narendra Modi will be the superhero of the year and would see all other political parties surrender before him, another priest at a TS government function predicted that Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao would play a key role in national politics.
While the astrologer at the government function predicted bountiful rains this year, the one at the event organised by the TS Congress predicted a ‘definite drought-like situation, while another one the at YSR Congress office said the party’s chief Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy will emerge clean from all the conspiracies hatched against him.
Mr Rao said that by giving contradictory predictions and interpretations, the astrologers appear to have served the interests of the political parties who organised the functions, rather than telling the people the real situation, especially regarding rains.
